Threat Modelling

Threat modelling is the process of identifying the realistic attacks most likely to affect your organisation.

An effective security posture should be shaped by an understanding of what kinds of security are worth prioritising, which in turn depends on the threat landscape your organisation faces. A vital element of security is thus threat modelling: determining what realistic threats to your organisation look like. Effective threat modelling depends on understanding both an organisation's security weaknesses and the methods attackers typically use. Shellhex's Threat Modelling service offers organisations the opportunity to collaborate with us to build a picture of what kinds of attacks pose the greatest threat to them, combining their domain expertise in their organisation's systems and operations with our understanding of attacker behaviour and real-world attack methods. Threat modelling does not require technical expertise from participants.

This service can be a valuable complement to our Risk Assessment service, as well as a valuable service in its own right. Where Risk Assessment focuses on estimating the economics of security remediation relative to the probability and costs of potential attacks, Threat Modelling more specifically focuses on determining which attacks pose the greatest danger to your organisation in the first place.

The Threat Triangle

If you were planning out which items in your home would make the most sense to put in a safe to protect against theft, you'd ask yourself:

  • What would you most fear losing?
  • What would thieves be most interested in stealing?
  • What would be the easiest for a thief to steal?

Our approach to threat modelling is based around the same three core questions. We assess the threats to your organisation by exploring:

  • Which attacks would be most damaging to your organisation?
  • Which attacks would offer the greatest value to an attacker?
  • Which attacks would be most technically viable?

At the intersection of these three factors lie the greatest threats to your organisation - the attacks that are straightforward to conduct, of high interest to attackers, and deeply destructive to your organisation.

What You Receive

Our Threat Modelling service provides organisations with a detailed picture of what kind of attacks are of greatest risk to them. Our service's deliverable is a report which lists our assessments of their organisation's threat landscape on all three of the dimensions of the threat triangle described above, followed by a prioritised list of the threats we believe warrant the greatest attention and remediation effort. Where appropriate and relevant, we can include references to real attacks that similar organisations have been victims of, as points of comparison. For the highest-priority threats we identify, we will also describe how a realistic attack might unfold in practice, helping organisations understand not only what the threat is, but how it could affect their operations.

Threat Modelling Pricing

Much as with our Risk Assessment service, our Threat Modelling service is offered at a flat fee of £450. Our Threat Modelling process is based around a meeting with your organisation where we can discuss the three questions of the threat triangle listed above. Using the information gathered during the workshop, we will prepare a report assessing the threats your organisation may face. If you then purchase any of our security testing engagements in the next 90 days, we will credit the £450 Threat Modelling service cost against security testing engagements, reducing the price of your first security testing engagement by £450.